I never thought Dave Matthews would do something I'd care about, but he did! He signed Liz Phair recently to the ATO Records label that he's co-owner of, and re-released her "classic" debut Exile In Guyville.

This is a slightly odd choice, though. Firstly, why re-master an album that relies so heavily on its imperfect and raw sound? The 3 bonus tracks here are pretty useless. "Say You" is a reggae cover and is, to me, unlistenable, but nice to know they were messin around in the studio. "Ant In Alaska" is a song that fans of the Girlysound tapes will be familiar with. This is NOT the same version. It is cleaner, & it's nice to hear an unreleased studio version. But it is not one of Phair's best songs, and this take offers no real new insight. I thought the other track called "Instrumental" would be a little more interesting, yet it pales next to much of the guitar work that's IN Phair's first 2 albums. So again, this track is unnecessary filler.

FYI: The extra songs are not B-sides, as noted on the sleeve. In my opinion, they should be regarded as Outtakes.

Thankfully EIG is dense with 18 great songs, so there's no need to look for unearthed material to flesh out the picture. The album says more than enough on its own.

Another bonus with this re-issue is the companion DVD. It's well over an hour long, and features interviews with members of Urge Overkill, John Cusack, Dave Matthews(again), Steve Albini, Brad Wood and many other interesting people who helped Phair's career take off. The DVD is recorded in a low-budget way, making some dialogue hard to hear, but it's worth seeing if you're interested in what Phair was like at the time she made this album.

And as for Exile In Guyville re-mastered and all? Well, I'm unsure if the mastering brings any added qualities to the songs, but it's a pleasant, albeit unnecessary, excuse to revisit a brilliant album.

Since its release, this CD remains as a one of the musical milestones from the 1990s. It topped the lists of many critics, propelled Matador Records further into the big time, and helped open the door for Alanis, Fiona, Meredith Brooks and a hundred other female artists to follow. With a title adapted from an Urge Overkill song ("Goodbye to Guyville" from their 'Stull" EP), this impressive debut was supposedly structured as her song-by-song response to the Rolling Stones' "Exile On Main Street" album. Brad Wood's subtle production brings her sound out of the bedroom without sacrificing the intimacy and honesty of her "Girlysound" days. Several of those songs get updated, including the explicit "F&@k and Run" and "Flower." Pottymouth lyrics aside, the songwriting is outstanding and her quirky guitar riffs perfectly compliment her dry singing style. The subject matter is much more blunt than her later work (where her perspective was changed by marriage and motherhood), and the instrumentation has a stripped-down feel. For those just discovering this album, the freshness of the material will no doubt suffer a bit in the wake of Lilith Fair and the media's "Women In Music" saturation, but it's still superior to a lot of what came after it. Highly recommended.

his album is a hit-or-miss case. I have friends who can't stand it, and I have friends who love it and claim it in their Top 10 of all time. It's worth listening to just to see where you stand. There isn't much debate about whether or not Liz can sing...she can't. She had to take singing lessons for her latest album. So ignore her voice...its whining, its monotone, it cracks, and it sounds like she was singing in her garage. That's also one of the strong points to those people who loved this album so much. When Liz's voice cracks, its usually because of the emotion in it. That's generous, given she doesn't really show much emotion...but she does deliver angst, longing, despair, guilt, and a little raw hatred. Her lyrics are witty, yet sometimes simple, but what her voice fails to deilver, her words do. Take the warnings of parental advisory seriously...she doesn't edit her feelings at all. It took me a long time to love this album. The songs don't work the first, oh, let's say 10 or so times you hear them. But if you think you hear something in her style, then listen some more. Memorize the songs...because they will grow on you, and infect you, and take you over. This is an ideal album for someone who just got out of a relationship. It runs the full range of emotions about breaking up...longing, hope, anger, guilt, despair, anguish. But ultimately the real charm of this album lies in its simplicity...most of the songs feature Liz as the sole musician. The songs seem as if they were recorded by Liz, her guitar, and a tape recorder (and actually, most of the songs came right from the demo tape that got this album recorded). The production quality may disapoint those looking for a studio-hyped album with richly woven melodies. I personally thought that the power and the charm of the album came from the fact that it was nothing more than Liz, stripped down to nothing but herself and her guitar. You'll either love it or hate it. But those who love it never take it out of their CD players.

Liz Phair's debut album is, quite simply, one of the best debuts ever. It is no wonder that "Guyville" is consistently ranked highly in almost every "best of" and "must have" alternative album list to ever exist. From the stutter-drum introduction of "6'1" to the discordant instrumentation at the end of "Strange Loop?," "Guyville" will hold you captive and pound itself into your brain.

Most people mistakingly assume that the majority of "Guyville" came from Phair's earlier Girlysound demos, recorded in her basement, but this is false. Only 6 of the 18 songs on "Guyville" are from these early recordings, and all of them have been at least slightly rewritten from the previous versions. (Also, the Girlysound demos did not immediately prompt Matador Records to sign Phair--at the signing, they had only listened to a scant few of the demo songs.)

"Guyville," however, retains the lo-fi feel of the early demos, with relatively simple instrumentation, imperfect vocals, and a much less glossy production than her later albums ("Whip-Smart" and "whitechocolatespaceegg"). The songs are almost like diary entries, with Phair baring her soul to the world in blatantly open, sometimes shocking, ways.

Many people characterize Phair as "angry female rock," but I don't see it. Phair is many things on this album--self-deprecating, sad, arrogant, and sexual--but I don't see a lot of overt anger. Rather, her songs deal simply with the wide range of emotions everybody feels with regards to life. Sometimes her issues are complex, such as in "F*** and Run," where she desires a stable relationship but is at the same time ashamed and seemingly incapable of having one. Sometimes they are simpler, like in "Help Me Mary," a reaction against the male-dominated independent music scene. Sometimes she even finds what she's looking for, like in "Strange Loop?"

Also, much has been said about her sexuality with regards to these songs. Phair takes traditional male viewpoints and standards with regards to women and sex and turns them on their head. She pokes fun at men and their conventions, but then, she pokes fun at herself, too. "Flower" especially, with its graphic sexual imagery, has to be taken with a grain of salt. She asks the question: Why is it that we react so harshly when these words are spoken by a woman, when we accept them from a man?

Musically, the strongest songs are probably "F*** and Run," the poppy "Never Said," and "6'1." The most memorable songs are probably "Flower," "Girls! Girls! Girls!" (again turning the male-female dynamic in relationship upside down), "Glory," and the infinitely sad "Divorce Song." My personal favorite is "Mesmerizing," in which Phair asks her lover to think of her in better terms than what he does ("You said things I wouldn't say / straight to my face, boy").

Phair has made many claims regarding "Guyville's" relationship to the Rolling Stones' 1972 double album "Exile on Main Street," calling "Guyville" a "female response" to the Stones' album. I highly recommend that you listen to the two albums together sometime. They really do work amazingly well together (plus, "Main Street" is just a great album, anyway).

"Guyville" is a feminist work, and any woman who wants a fresh perspective on male-female dynamics should certainly check it out. However, it transcends that and becomes a commentary on life in general, for everyone, and the complicated emotions we have to face every day. Therefore, I recommend "Guyville" to anyone who likes their music to be thoughtful and fresh.

Whether you're a hard-core indie music fan or someone who is just discovering the genre, "Guyville" is a definite must-have. More listener-friendly than many independent albums, "Guyville" has something for just about everyone.

I first saw Liz Phair perform in 1993 at Treno's in Urbana, Illinois. She was an opening act (along with the Coctails) for the now-defunct Urbana-based band Corndolly. At that time, Liz was singing and playing guitar in the middle of a room full of people; I couldn't hear her at all. Therefore, when I saw "Exile in Guyville" on the shelf at the record store, I figured I'd buy it just to see what I'd missed. From the first listen, I was hooked. It rarely left my CD player, and the tape I made for my car nearly wore out. That next academic year, I was working on my master's thesis. I was three months late submitting it for approval, and I blame the delay entirely on this album. Late at night, when I should have been working, I would play "Exile in Guyville" and absolutely disappear into the lyrics. Each of the songs stands well on its own, but together, they make up an album worth more than the sum of its parts. This CD truly is a work of genius.